In a process for manufacturing a semiconductor device, a polishing for a rear surface of a semiconductor wafer is performed to remove an unnecessary film (burr) formed at an outer circumferential part of the rear surface of a semiconductor wafer. The rear surface polishing of the semiconductor wafer is performed by bringing a polishing unit into contact with the burrs, and applying a force to the rear surface. Thus, during the polishing of the rear surface, the semiconductor wafer receives pressure from the polishing unit, and the semiconductor wafer is warped. This warping of the semiconductor wafer reduces the polishing rate.
In order to suppress such warping of the semiconductor wafer, an adsorption force of a vacuum chuck that holds the semiconductor wafer from the front surface of the semiconductor wafer can be increased, but in this case, the front surface of the semiconductor wafer may be damaged due to the increase in the adsorption force. A method for holding the semiconductor wafer only at the outer circumferential part of the semiconductor wafer is considered to avoid such damage, but this method cannot sufficiently suppress the warping of the semiconductor wafer described above caused by the rear surface polishing of the semiconductor wafer.